If he's this pessimistic about the season, should he really bother coming to games? Anybody else ready to give him what for if he we have a good start and do well over the season? See what fault he can pick up then!
The last time we were promoted it was largely due to a very old striker and a kid from Man United, we were taken up by a manager who's only previous achievement was to completely **** things up at Derby. You're so full of **** it's embarrassing.
I feared no one last season, as I think the league was very weak squad-wise, but unfortunately our bad start, home form, etc. meant we couldn't really compete fairly. I still maintain we had one of the best squads last season. As for this year, we have no idea how B'ham and WHAM!'s squads will turn out so we can't say, but I'd guess they'll be stronger than Burnley and Portsmouth were after coming down last year. I'd say that in this league there's no use fearing anyone. The teams that fare the best in this league are the ones that fear no one and convince themselves they are great. Look at QPR, Norwich, Swansea, and Leeds to an extent last year. Not overly talented squads, but they just went for it and had a positive attitude. I bet not one of their fans would admit they don't have talented squads, but this is the point. The whole attitude of these clubs is that they deserve to be promoted. I think teams like Cardiff and Forest who have failed a couple of times have the exact opposite attitude and that's why even though they have better players than the teams who went up, they were destined to fail.
Over two thirds of Cardiff's goals this season were scored by players who've already left them and it looks like they're about to lose Chopra too. They still have some decent players, but with all the released players and returning loans they've got a very thin squad. I don't how deep their owners pockets are, but they've spent a lot of money in the past couple of seasons and have still fallen short. I'm sure the new manager will be given some money to spend, but I'm not sure it will be enough to match this seasons squad.
Until I know who's playing for us, and for everyone else, and seen a few games...who the hell can tell? The team we currently have could change dramatically if we get rid of Bullard and buy / loan other players, same for every other team. We really have no idea who is what or how yet. As much as I'll enjoy going to PBoro, I have really bad memories of us there. Never write anyone off. Remember how we were expected to do against the might of teams like the Arse etc?
Brown was unproven, Pearson has proven to be mediocre. Campbell came in and made an instant impact, nobody had to pretend he was any good. The two seasons aren't really comparable, for the reason that it was Brown and Campbell's first season, the people we are relying on to get promoted this time have already proved themselves to be not good enough, so there's no reason for optimism.
Hell of a punt Adam Pearson took on that unproven manager, you must have been well impressed with that. You don't know who will be in the team next season, so everything else you've written is complete bollocks.
It was, and I was. Then again, I never questioned his performance the first time he was here, I was in awe just like you. Nobody does, so by the same token everything in this thread is complete bollocks, no?
Up to a point. There's some teams that definitely can't be judged yet, West Ham and Brum are likely to weaken considerably, Ipswich look to be spending a few quid, as do Leicester, Brighton and Southampton. Cardiff's new manager will get a few bob to spend and Pompey currently barely have a squad, so their new owners will be doing a bit of shopping. I suspect that the others won't change dramatically, so an educated guess can be made as to how many teams are like to perform. Quite why you feel the need to slag off your own team for not having enough good players, without knowing which additional players will be signed, is completely beyond me. I suspect it's just because you enjoy being an irritating little ****.
I wouldn't bet on West Ham being weaker. They'll lose "big name" players but those players were part of a crap team. Bringing in Allardyce shows good ambition and they should have cash to chuck around once they've sold Ba, Parker, Green, etc. How bad Birmingham's financial problems are is anyone's guess but they look set to throw some money at it for a season to try and get back up.
Brown was here the season previously, both as assistant manager and manager from Christmas onwards. Like NP, he had time to look to build a squad of his own, get rid of the deadwood and lay the foundations for an improved season the following year. Most of our team were only here from November onwards, so will have being developing as squad throughout the past few months, i don't see how only after 5 months of playing together they can be classed as 'not good enough'? Most of them are young lads who look like they will only keep improving as players, with a few more experienced heads round them (Danns etc) we have the makings of a good squad. Pearson has already reached the play offs in this league, won a title (albeit the league below) and kept Southampton up when they were in dire straits. Pearson will be judged on this season rather than last, therefore it's rather rash to write him already.
They're about £50m in debt and I'm not sure Carson Yeung has the personal wealth to continue funding the club. He's already mortgaged his Hong Kong property to keep the club trading and he's tried to raise £20m with a share issue on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, but has so far only managed £7m. He needs to raise £10m to meet bank repayments in the short term and an additional £20m would be required to keep the squad together now they've been relegated. I think they're going to lose their better players and they'll still have massive cash issues, I think they're about as ****ed as we were(though Yeung has a few quid more than Bartlett).
I'm hoping they are as knackered as we were last summer but I think that they'll sell Dann, Johnson, Foster and Zigic to enable them to keep going and push for an immediate return. They've already shed quite a few out of contract players, plus Hleb and Bentley were only on loan so their wage bill will have fallen quite a lot. I hope they implode but I don't see it.
the more i read twf/percival the more i'm convinced hes tonym who posts on the fail.....cheer up percy...new season,fresh squad a settled platform to build from this is the season NP and his team should be judged on but as some one rightly said earlier.....respect everyone fear no-one
No predictions about where we finish from me until i see who we sign. If we bring in 6 or 7 as stated by AP its a whole different team/squad so predictions right now are useless. All i will say is i cant see us having a bad a start as last season.
The only thing we should fear is not remembering that the object of the game is to get the round thing inside the white posts at the opposition's end of the pitch.
Dont listen to Percival what ever his name is hes talking crap. Brown scraped to keep the team up his first season NP has managed 11th in his first, hes got great links for scouting so maybe throw your full judgement after the next season has finished. I think your just a WUM tho tbh
